day program for people diagnosed with an intellectual disability- beginner!
Posted by Liz Fitzgerald on 4/25/2007, 4:00 am
I'm an Art Therapy masters student in Sydney Australia, and am hoping to begin using Photo Therapy techniques in a day program center for people diagnosed as having intellectual disabilities during my clinical placement. I'll be running a weekly group for 6-8 clients and the group will last for 6 weeks.
I'm unsure whether to give each client a disposable camera to take away for a week, or whether to ask them to go outside during the session to take photographs. I imagine that being given time (a week) to think about the images, could make a difference in what comes up for them in the sessions. Or can taking photos in session time be as powerful in other ways?
Just interested to hear your thoughts!
Thanks, Liz
Re: day program for people diagnosed with an intellectual disability- beginner!
I realize that this post it really old but i was wondering how this program worked out? I am currently running a photography program for people with an intellectual disability and am looking to make the program more engaging by having people with access to their own digital camera shoot photographs outside the class/studio. Did you use disposable cameras? And if so, how did it work out?
Re: day program for people diagnosed with an intellectual disability- beginner!
Thanks Cait, and yes it was a while ago- great that the postings are still around now! Unfortunately I didn't get the funding on my student placement to allow for disposable cameras, so didn't end up using photography with the group (although a lot of collage was done using pre-existing images). I'm about to start on using photography in individual sessions with a client though, and will be using the facility's digital camera. This is in an aged care facility, however the client (with an intellectual disability) is quite young and finds herself there due to lack of suitable community housing. We're excited to introduce photography to our sessions, and I feel this will be really helpful for her, as more direct art-making has so-far proved to be too confronting and increases her frustration with herself. By using photography I'm hoping that the medium may allow less self criticism while still allowing creativity with the aim of an increased acceptance of self. The facility has also agreed to get Photoshop up and running for us. One idea the client has expressed is to photograph her fruit- the service will often provide unripe fruit, and the client wishes to document the fruit daiy to show how long it takes before her feed is actually edible. This is a powerful concept, given the institutionalisation of the client, and it allows her to take control of the situation to an extent. Good luck with your group and sorry I don't have the info you were after. Liz
Re: day program for people diagnosed with an intellectual disability- beginner!
just hearing the experiences of someone else using photography to work with a person with an intellectual disability is helpful to me. wow, that does sound like a powerful concept for a project! how has the project and the client been progressing?
